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Regular updates from students in TRIP

A TRIP into my life by Erin Suter

3/7/2022

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Welcome readers to a quick TRIP into my life. My name is Erin Suter and I’m a Junior at Central Bucks High School East. While I have a huge passion for science and learning new things, building connections and making discoveries to benefit society is my main reason for joining the TRIP Initiative. I was so excited to find out I was accepted into the program, and I’m thrilled to continue in the following weeks. My short-term goals for the future are to attend college and pursue a STEM major. I hope the TRIP Initiative can give me more insight into what specifically I want to do. 
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In school, I fall under the athletic-nerd category. I spend a majority of my free time after school at swim practice 5 days a week, sometimes practicing in the morning as well. Besides this, I am a member of Class Council, Student Council, Environmental Club, HOSA, and the Orchestra. I’m also an officer of a newly founded club called Generation She. This club motivates young women to pursue their passions in the business world. Outside of school, I volunteer at the Doylestown Hospital, I’m a graduate of the Citizen’s Diplomat Academy and I’m a Certified Conservation Ambassador. Conservation is a topic I feel strongly passionate about and I try to make as much of an impact as possible in my community by encouraging others to reduce their eco-footprint. 
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This Saturday, 2/5/2022, was my first day in the lab. I have never felt more like a scientist. Holding the micropipette in my hand for the first time and measuring amounts of St. John’s Wort and sucrose was an experience I will never forget. My fellow TRIP peers were so kind and motivated. It was cool to see how unique and diverse everyone was. I think it is so essential to hear different perspectives from so many different backgrounds especially when doing research projects like these. I can’t wait to start my research and discover more about the world we live in and myself. I’m excited to take on the TRIP journey and hopefully discover something amazing.
Signing off,
Erin Suter
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Get to Know Me! by Kevin Lobo

3/6/2022

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Hi! I am Kevin Lobo and I am a sophomore at Wissahickon High School. I was born in India and have had to move a bunch throughout my life. I have settled in this area for a few years now, which has helped me be more involved in my community than before. I am a proud member of Miss Daisy, team 341, our high school’s robotics team. I am super excited to be going to my first world championship in April this year! I help to program our robot, and we have the majority of the code for this season already written. (We just have to wait for the mechanical subteam to give us the actual subsystems to test.) I also take part in competitive programming competitions and hackathons. My friend and I placed seventh internationally at UPenn’s PClassic, and we have been training to do even better next time. With MLH hackathons, I have been able to put ideas to life with people all over the world, from Egypt to India, and it has been really fun!
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​I am also an active member of our school’s debate team. I compete in Lincoln Douglas, which is a one-on-one form of debate. This year’s topic dealt with the appropriation of outer space by private entities, which was really unique and interesting. I made it to the regional semifinals this year, which is a good bar to set for myself. I play soccer and tennis, so I naturally love sports and the outdoors. This summer, I helped train a group of younger kids in my neighborhood, as well as volunteered for the Elmwood Zoo. Spending that much time with kids really taught me how to talk to an entirely different audience.
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I have interests that clearly fall all over the place, so it is difficult to decide what I want to do in the future. Through TRIP, I hope to foster the core skills required for each of these activities and apply them to create a really interesting experiment with flies! This experience will be essential to whatever field I go into, whether it be computer science or biochemistry. That said, our first day went really well and I know the TRIP will continue to be great!
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A Little About Me! by Diya Parekh

3/5/2022

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Hi! My name is Diya Parekh, and I’m a current junior at William Tennent High School. In my free time, I love reading and all-things music! Reading is always something I’ve loved and could do for hours at a time when I was younger, but it’s something I haven’t been the best at keeping up with once I started getting older and having less time. I’m trying to get back into it by exploring new genres and even branching out and trying to read nonfiction. As for music, it’s something I love in every single way. I’ve been playing the viola since I was in the third grade. It’s something that started off as just a hobby, but it’s become a pivotal part of my life. Through playing the viola, I have been able to gain a deeper appreciation for classical music. The polar opposite part of the musical part of me is my self-taught guitar journey! I have been teaching myself guitar for the past two years. I’ve gotten the chance to learn both electric and acoustic, and I can say with confidence that acoustic is my favorite. I could go hours on end learning complicated folksy acoustic songs. 
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A big part of my life, of course, is school. I’m an active member of my school’s National Honor Society, Science National Honor Society, English Honor Society, and Key Club. All of these clubs are really great for community service opportunities and interacting with some like minded peers. I have also recently co-founded my school’s Health Science Exploration Club with one of my friends. My friend and I noticed that there weren't many resources for kids interested in the medical field, but there were lots of students that planned to go to college for pre-med or nursing. We designed this club this year to invite guest speakers in the health science field, including William Tennent alumni, to speak to our club about their high school, college, and work experience. So far, the club is doing very well!
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I am so excited to learn about the research process and to make new friends at TRIP! 
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I told my mom I won’t TRIP from excitement! by Jenan Hazazi

3/4/2022

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Hello readers. I'm Jenan Hazazi, a Junior at William Tennent Highschool.
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Ever since I was on all fours, I have been quite fascinated by the world surrounding me and all that it has to offer. I've always been quite open to trying new things and essentially becoming comfortable being uncomfortable. I’m always seeking to find ways to grow as an individual and meet new people. In doing so, I tend to engage in many clubs that not only feed my curiosity, but also help others, such as Robotics, MSA, National Science Honor Society, and Volunteering clubs including Key Club. I also enjoy traveling very much as I've been to about 12 different countries and dozens of new cities. I've lived in Saudi Arabia for about three years and spent the rest of my childhood in New Jersey. I moved to Pennsylvania at the beginning of 2021 and I love it here. Moving around and meeting new people is arguably why I have become such a language enthusiast with hopes of becoming a polyglot one day. I am currently fluent in two languages, English and Arabic, and learning my third, Spanish. ​
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Throughout my years of dabbling in new things, I have found myself to be extremely drawn to art and the sciences. Art is more of a hobby of mine; it always helps me to tune in to my creative side which sometimes gets lost while taking challenges that come my way. Though I favor painting realism with oil paints and sketching still life with pens, I can use or learn to use any medium given to me.  Science on the other hand is more of a passion for me, something that I have always been sure that I will pursue in my lifetime as I genuinely can’t see myself doing anything else. People tend to say that learning is tedious and I disagree, telling them they must be learning something that doesn’t make their mind wander. That is what science does to me; keeping me forever wondering how things work, and continuously keeping me mesmerized and in awe of all that surrounds me. I’d hope to someday work in Emergency Medicine, but I would always consider any opportunities that I find or come my way, such as TRIP.
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When this opportunity was brought up to me by my teacher Mr. Jayo, I knew I wanted to apply for a few different reasons. One of them was the chance to figure out if I wanted to do research in the future as the idea does intrigue me, which I give credit to my dad, a maxillofacial surgeon, who tells me stories of his time in the lab. At that time, he had lived in Guam and had a pet monkey named Alex. Maybe one day I’ll do research and have a pet monkey as well. Nevertheless, I also knew that there was much that I would take away from this program, both inside and outside the lab such as lab techniques, experimentation procedures, fine-tuning communication skills, and meeting new, like minded-people. ​
It had been my first day yesterday and to say I was so beyond excited is an understatement. I met some amazing people on just my first day as well as started to learn how to use a micropipette and set up an experiment by setting up the vials of food for the flies that I will use next time we join. I know I have much to learn, and alongside these brilliant fellow peers of mine, and especially under the wings of Dr. Leystra and Dr. Purdy, I can already tell this is the start of an amazing TRIP in my life!
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Going on a TRIP! by Keith Thompson

3/3/2022

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​Hi everyone!
My name is Keith Thompson, and I am a junior at William Tennent High School. This may not be the most exciting area, but I’ve lived here all my life, so I love it.  I like to do a lot of different things, science being just one of them. The most rewarding thing I like to do is exercising. Running in particular has been a hobby of mine for the past 3-4 years. I started doing it occasionally to lose weight, but over the past 2 years I have really worked it into my life. I had been doing it on my own before, but this year I finally decided to join the track team. Though track is the only sport I participate in, I also love to watch sports and I am an avid football fan. Aside from sports, I like baking, reading, and eating. I love baking, but I have to avoid doing it too often, as I usually end up eating most of what I make. I don’t always find the time to read, but when I do, I love it, because it always relaxes me, as long as I’m reading a good book. 
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​Of course, I wouldn’t have applied to TRIP if I weren’t interested in science. In school, I take Anatomy and AP Chemistry, and I am excited to continue learning in TRIP. I love doing labs in school, but we don’t do them as frequently as I’d like. TRIP will not only allow me to do more labs, but also give me real world lab experience. Additionally, it will give me insight into what career I want to pursue. As of now, I know I want to go into the science field, but I don’t know what I’d want to do specifically. Maybe doing TRIP will steer me towards being a research scientist, or maybe it’ll steer me towards a medical career. Who knows? Hopefully I will after we’re done!
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The Start of my TRIP Journey by Eri Maeda

3/2/2022

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    Hello everyone! My name is Eri, and I’m a Junior at the Baldwin School. I was born in Tokyo, Japan. I spent most of my childhood in different parts of California, but this year is my first time in the East coast. I’m extremely excited to be part of an amazing program like TRIP!
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I love all things music, but I especially love to play the clarinet. I’m a part of my school band program, and I also play for the Philadelphia Sinfonia. It’s an awesome group of teenagers that have a passion for music. We just had a concert in January. My favorite composer is Tchaikovsky, not only because his pieces are challenging, but because the history behind the composer and each symphony is fascinating to me. Music is also the reason why I’m curious about the auditory system. (It’s also what I’m hoping to base off my research at TRIP!)
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    One of my other passions is teaching. I don’t necessarily want to be an educator, but I think that it’s the best way for me to give back to my community right now. Last year, I created an organization to tutor Japanese to American students. I think that there are fewer resources to learn Japanese than other languages like Spanish or Chinese, so I think that it’s important for Japanese speakers like me to encourage others to learn this awesome language.
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Yesterday, I met an amazing group of talented and friendly people. I’m really excited to work with all of my peers and mentors over the next couple of months. After we introduced ourselves and had a mini lesson on laboratory safety and pipettes, we started getting our hands on making fly food! For the next couple of weeks, I’m going to be testing how Vitamin E (drug) can help with counteracting the effects of detergent (stressor).     
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The Beginning of my TRIP! by Sanjana Balaji

3/1/2022

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Hi! My name is Sanjana Balaji and I am a sophomore at Garnet Valley High School. While we have only had one week in the TRIP lab, I have gotten to become friends with my TRIP family and I am eagerly looking forward to the Saturday’s I get to spend with them! Science has been a huge passion of mine ever since I participated in a science fair in 1st grade with my alka-seltzer lava lamp. My 6 year old self found the reasoning behind why bubbles formed fascinating. I fell in love with the creation and explanation of aspects from the world around us. My passion only evolved and 9 years later, here I am!
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At school, I am involved in a variety of different clubs and activities. I am on the Speech and Debate team where I participate in heated Public Forum arguments, and the HiQ team, which is an academic quiz competition (basically like Jeopardy). I am also in Science Olympiad where I participate in Anatomy and Physiology, Forensics, and sometimes chemistry events, as well as STEAM Buddies, where we teach STEAM related topics to elementary and middle schoolers. Additionally, I tutor students in chemistry and I am part of my school’s tennis team. I love rallying with my friends and teammates and I spend hours every summer and fall on the courts. My absolute favorite subjects in school are chemistry and psychology. Every moment of those classes is invigorating and the science of matter, brains, and behavior is something I wish to continue learning about. ​
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In my time outside of school, I immerse myself in a lot of musical and creative outlets. I play the piano and have been for about 11 years. Teaching is also a huge passion of mine and I started teaching piano to kids in my neighborhood about a year ago. I am a Bharatanatyam (a type of Indian classical dance form) dancer and a carnatic music singer. I’ve been a dancer since I was 4 and my connection towards dance has grown significantly in the past few years. I find that I cannot go a day without dancing and I’ve come to love and appreciate the connection with my culture it provides.
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My desire to learn more about fields of science was the driving force behind my application for TRIP. In addition to hands-on lab experience and the opportunity to conduct my own research, I wanted the guidance of amazing mentors in order to figure out if science is the career path I should take. TRIP offered all three! I am hoping my experience at TRIP will let me figure out exactly what path I want to take. I am beyond grateful for this opportunity and I cannot wait to see what the future brings!! 
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Beginning my TRIP by Ella Masino

2/28/2022

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Hi! My name is Ella Masino and I am currently a junior at West Deptford high school in New Jersey. I am very active in my clubs and activities and have participated in tennis for the past three years. Although I cannot say I am the best tennis player, I wanted to try something new after playing soccer and lacrosse my whole life. To my surprise, I really enjoyed playing and appreciated the accountability to sport presented me with. As for clubs, I am the president of our STEM Club and have organized a program called STEM Snacks at our middle school along with my advisor. A group of about twelve physics students and I travel to our middle school to each present and explain a small STEM project of our own. We will also be participating in the Physics Olympics and SeaGlide this spring! I also have a passion for art and became the Vice President of our Art National Honors Society this year. We mainly participate in service projects and I organized our participation in Hearts for Hospice in the fall. Despite my love for science, art class will always be the most relaxing part of my day.
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Outside of school I enjoy spending time outside and with the people I love. Although I cannot say I am a cold-weather enthusiast, I enjoy snowboarding and it definitely gives me something to look forward to in the colder months. In the summer I love swimming and going on hikes in the poconos with whoever will join me. I was a lifeguard for more than a year at a few different facilities, and I cannot say there is anything I enjoy more than being by the water and under the Sun with a book in my hand - but only if it is poetry. I also love spending every second I am home with my two pitbulls who have huge personalities and often make me laugh. Although I am not sure if it is considered a hobby, I think I love trying new food more than anything. I am currently trying my best to become vegetarian, yet Jim’s Cheesesteaks and chicken burritos will always have my heart. 
I discovered my love of science at a young age as I spent most of my time watching documentaries and the National Geographic channel. I completely fell in love with animals and nature - and that is something I truly will never outgrow. The more I learned about the environment the more I also learned about the slew of dangers posing a threat to our beautiful ecosystems. I  became obsessed with learning all I could about our changing Earth. I desperately wanted to discover ways to reverse the changes that were occurring, yet I found very little was being done; therefore, I decided that I will one day pursue a career in Earth or animal science to keep nature safe. I first participated in Tech Trek, an all girls program offered at a number of different universities in which I chose to participate in the Environmental Science program. I then went on to become a part of ZooCrew at the Philadelphia Zoo so I could gain experience and learn all I could from the professionals there. Since I have had limited lab experience due to being online for my first two years of high school, I was more than excited to participate in this particular program. I have always had a passion for STEM and am eager to learn as much as I can! Teen Research Internship Program presented me with an opportunity to expand my knowledge and understand lab procedures before entering college which made this program stand out from all others. 

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TRIP 2021 Finale by Roman Ferraro

10/16/2021

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    Wow, what a ride this has been! I am so grateful to have had this opportunity and have learned so much in the short weeks I spent in the lab. I did not expect time to fly (get it?) by so quickly. I remember a few weeks ago not even knowing what the scientific name for a fly was to now being able to identify the sex of a fly and what stage of development it is in in mere seconds. I went from being annoyed by flies to sort of liking them in a weird way. I definitely appreciate them more than I used to. After 6 weeks, my disdain for flies turned into admiration and that in it of itself is a feat. We have only been out of the lab for 4 days and I already miss it. That’s one thing I am definitely taking away from this experience - I need to choose a career where I get to spend some time in the lab! 
        A few weeks ago, I shared with you all my idea to study water quality in the school district’s effect on the gut microbiome. This project was inspired by the Flint Water Crisis as well as my own experiences in urban and suburban high schools. During my freshman year, I went to a suburban high school before transferring to Roxborough. Prior to my time at Haverford, my suburban school, I had only gone to intercity schools with limited funding so I knew about the extreme differences in funding well before reentering the school district. However, upon starting at Roxborough, I truly began to take note of the differences between the schools, including the difference in water taste and quality. At Haverford, it didn't matter what fountain you used, the water tasted the same. However, at Roxborough only the water coming from the filtration fountains tasted okay. Because of these differences and my love for bacteria and disease, I figured testing water quality through the gut microbiome was a great choice for my project. 
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   I tested water from Temple University, Roxborough High School, and William Tennent High School.  I ran the gut microbiome assay for myself 5 times, with six vials each time and multiple times for other people in the lab. In roughly 3 weeks, I probably tested close to fifty microbiomes! I had a lot of fun doing the microbiome assay, even though at first glance it might look boring given that it is over 75% micropipetting and creating dilutions. I ended up testing 6 different water sources and the results were pretty astonishing. My suspicions were confirmed that my suburban school, William Tennent, most matched my control, a water bottle. However, I discovered that the difference in a normal microbiome and an altered one was not a difference in school district but rather an urban vs suburban issue. I think this has a lot to do with environmental justice and the disparities in resources that urban people vs suburban people have access to.
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TRIP was such an amazing experience and I had a blast meeting everyone! The lab was always buzzing (see what I did there?) and it was so fun to sort flies with everyone at the CO2 pads. A fair warning to everyone applying to TRIP: sorting flies will simultaneously be the best and worst experience you have in the lab. 
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The Finish Line by Diego Asencio

10/4/2021

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After a bittersweet last day in the lab, my TRIP experience is near over. All the train rides, homework, calculations, and flies are behind me. However, all the knowledge that I have gained and relationships that I have made will never be lost. After the first week, where keeping on top of the homework was not my strong suit, I never thought that I would be able to finish anything in the intensive lab, but with the help of Dr. Leystra and Dr. Purdy, my experiment was a success! Let's take a look into exactly what was a success, what wasn’t, and how I learned from the amazing experience in the TRIP Lab.
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My experiment was set up to answer the question, does omeprazole have any long term side effects? I take omeprazole to help treat my Eosinophilic Esophagitis, so I wanted to make sure that there wouldn't be any major unknown side effects. The Larval Locomotion with Methyl Blue assay was the perfect experiment to use to answer my question. How it works is on a 10 cm x 15 cm strip of thermal paper, I spread out five larvae and painted them with a 0.2% methyl blue dilution. The larvae would leave a trail on the paper showing exactly where they went over a 10 minute period. I then used a software to measure out the distance and used the average distance traveled per condition to determine whether or not the larvae were healthy. I used a control condition, and then by using 2 solutions, I made the equivalent to 20 mg, 40 mg, 80 mg, and 120 mg of omeprazole for flies and put it into their food. The question was successful overall, and depending on how you look at it not so good news - The higher the dose the larvae were given, the less average distance they traveled.
Now, it wouldn’t be a teenager in a university lab without a few mistakes here and there. At first, I wanted to test the lifespan of the fly, but there would not be enough time to conduct the assay in the lab. This was the ultimate goal, as I wanted to make sure that my lifespan would not be affected by this drug, but I was unfortunately never able to test the lifespan. Furthermore, after picking the Larval Locomotion with methyl blue, I wanted to not only measure the distance, but also the amount of turns and how fast the larvae were moving. But the turns seemed to be completely random, and the speed was impossible to measure unless I recorded all 10 minutes of the larvae and tried to estimate the speed. On top of these mistakes, on my second rep I forgot to make a control vial, so now I am completely aware about the dangers of sharing control conditions between different reps, and then I forgot to take flies home with me to conduct the assay at home for rep 5. So all in all, being naive was an incredibly obvious thing to not do, but I fell for the trap of biting off more than I could chew.
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And so now, at the end of it all, what have I learned? To be honest, I will have to see what I learned when I get thrown into another lab experience. Testing my skills such as pipetting, calculations, communications, and clarity, are all going to be important, and that's not to mention getting to the lab on time, having all my work done for the day, finding time to eat and drink, which are all just as important. But there is no doubt in my mind that TRIP has better prepared me for any science lab that I will see in the future. If I could say one thing to my week one self, I would tell him to put his head down and get to work, because TRIP is not a cakewalk.
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